Alchemy
by Iceclaw14
Summary: After Brotherhood/manga. Edward Elric, at age 41, is finally repaying for his transmutation to save his life many years ago. As his life draws to a close, his young daughter, Chruse, becomes determined to help him regain the happiness he lost: alchemy.


Iceclaw14:Hello people! I just want you guys to know that I am in love with Fullmetal Alchemist and I have an Edward Elric plushie I love like it's my own child. I've had this idea for a while and I can't hold it in any longer. This will be my second Fullmetal Alchemist one-shot, and I still have another one planned. This one takes place _way_ after the end of the manga/Brotherhood, and I hope you like it and that you cry. 3 Disclaimer: I own nothing Fullmetal Alchemist related except my plushie. Spoilers for end of Brother/manga!

* * *

><p>There was one undeniable fact to the young Chruse Elric:<p>

Her father was dying.

At forty-one years old, Edward Elric had three children, six medals from the State Military, an automail leg, a brother living in Xing with his wife and child, close relations with many members of the parliament that was now ruling Amestris, and a home and wife in the country village of Risembool where they made a living repairing auto-mail—which he still did not understand in the slightest.

His eldest child, Van Elric, was twenty-years-old. He had the same golden hair as his namesake, the narrow chin of his mother, the blue-green eyes of his paternal grandmother, and his father's stature, intelligence, and short temper, but he lacked any skill in alchemy—unlike his namesake. Instead of following the path of alchemical research like his father did when he became unable to perform the science, he took to politics and the government, and was currently a records keeper in Central, where he lived with his young wife.

Eighteen-year-old Kae Elric strongly resembled her mother. She had her blue eyes, her stubborn temper, tender heart, and her inconceivable love for automail. Her basic alchemical knowledge perfected her automail engineering skills, and she followed in the footsteps of her mother and was currently under the tutelage of the whimsical Mr. Garfiel in Rush Valley. Save for her golden-hair and some-what ability to perform alchemy, she scarcely resembled her father.

Edward Elric's youngest child was the seven-year-old Chruse Elric. She had her mother's blonde hair and her father's eyes, but she most resembled her paternal grandfather through her quiet though strong personality and deep, indelible love for alchemy. She _adored_ alchemy, and, before her father fell ill, she would always beg him to tell her about how he used to perform the seemingly magical science. He would quiz his daughter on the components of different materials, and he even promised her he would take her to see all the amazing alchemists he had ever met, from the grave of his teacher and that of his father, to May Chang and his brother in Xing, to Roy Mustang and Alexander Louis Armstrong in Central, to a tattooed Ishballen and even farther.

Ed's eyes would sparkle when he spoke to his daughter about the science he had loved and lost. His heart would race and his mind would fill with thousands of stories to tell her about his transmutations. He would often repeat some of his favorites many times over, but Chruse would never become bored. It was always a sheer thrill listening to her father speak.

Winry allowed alchemy to be spoken about everywhere and anywhere. She allowed entire days to go on without hearing a single word passed between her daughter and husband that were not related to the science. Although she knew very little about alchemy and became very lost when she tried to include herself in on their conversations, it was easily her favorite topic. She loved the sparkle in her husband's eyes; the constant excitement in his voice. This caused her to love her daughter even more, because she could give her husband a brand of happiness only she could supply. Chruse could make him forget and return him to the days in which a simple clap of his hands could potentially turn whatever simple material was before him into something spectacular and awe-inspiring.

* * *

><p>Once, when Van and Kae were very young, so young they knew not a thing about alchemy or their father's past other than the fact he was very famous, they returned from their tiny school house with smiles expanding from one ear to the other—for they had just learned a very fun game.<p>

As always, Ed waited to greet his children on their way home about half-way between the school house and the old Rockbell house that was now the Elric house. He would sit on the stone wall that lined the beaten path, right where the wall was low enough for one to sit easily upon with jumping up, where his brother had sat to rest on their way to see Winry after Alphonse had reclaimed his body. Edward would gaze up at the sky and imagine the many cities he had traveled to over the horizon. Occasionally, he would turn his head in the direction of his childhood home—of which any and all remains had long been washed away by storms and time itself. Maybe he imagined his old home and his smiling mother; maybe he saw the stormy night in which he and his brother performed what was likely the greatest mistake of their lives; or maybe he saw his father's face and the roaring fire that had died out all those years ago. Although it shall never be certain what exactly he was seeing, it was known that he looked and saw something that was not there.

With his limping and mal-nutritioned brother next to him, still fresh and unused to his old body, he would recall every step they took on their journey—from his own towards his father as he left the three Elrics, to the sure steps as he stepped towards Truth before he traded his alchemy for his brother. He would stare down at his flesh hands and, for a few fleeting seconds, he would forget. Forget their journey was over, forget that his brother could feel and cry again. He would stare and feel the alchemical power flowing through him and he would know that when he was to clasp his palms together—

"Daddy, Daddy!"

Edward was whisked from his daydream by his young daughter's enthusiastic cry. She rushed towards him and he lifted her into the air, much to Kae's delight. Van, however, preferred to seat himself on the stones, but he sat as near his father as Kae did when Ed set her down.

"Daddy, we learned a game today!" she said, the joy evident in her voice.

"Really? Teach it to me," he responded as he vied to mirror his daughter's obvious excitement.

"Okay," she said as she raised her hands. However, Van interrupted her with a loud slap against the stone.

"No! Let me do it."

"But I want to teach Daddy!"

"Calm down," said Edward as he made a swift, graceful motion with his arms that silenced his children. He turned to face his son, whom wore a scowl so familiar Ed could not help but smile. "Your sister spoke first, so she'll teach me, alright?"

"Fine," Van grumbled disdainfully. His father ruffled the boy's hair, and his scowl turned into a small grin.

Ed, although he managed to quiet his children and calm down his son, was still in a daze—almost entirely unaware of what was happening. His eyes saw nothing as Kae ran through the complicated hand motions, and, instead of hearing Kae's instructions or Van's occasional interruptions, he heard the soft hum that occurred whenever he would press his palms together.

He followed Kae's every ridiculous motion without ever grasping what he was doing. He snapped his fingers, crossed his arms, and performed the other bizarre movements mechanically. He couldn't have been less aware of his limbs if they were detached from his body. It was not until he clapped his flesh hands together that he was wrenched back into reality.

There was no sound of the impact of metal and skin.

Energy did not surge immediately through his arms; his skin did not tingle with power.

The soft, familiar hum that always guaranteed something extraordinary was absent.

It was then that Edward Elric, the alchemical researcher, the former Fullmetal Alchemist, truly lost the metaphysical science that had so effortlessly become almost his entire life.

His eyes began to water, his shoulders began to shake, and a lump rose in his throat. He choked and cried outright before his children. He cried because he was no longer the Fullmetal Alchemist: the hero of the people. He cried because no matter the number of circles he drew or the countless times his palms touched, he could not change a single thing.

It was then the children realized their father had lost something he could never get back. And not just any something, but in fact one of the few things that had powered him through his toughest years—One of the somethings that made Edward Elric Edward Elric.

The children stared up at their father, too shocked to mutter a sound. They watched as tear after tear emerged from his lamented eyes of gold which were typically a source of strength and reliance. They watched as their father's life fell apart before him. They thought themselves powerless—no matter what we do, they had thought, nothing will help him.

So they gave up, as did their father.

* * *

><p>Ed had collapsed several weeks before Chruse's miserable realization while he was wandering about outside his house. When Winry found him, she quickly moved him inside and a doctor was called. Edward was feverish and unconscious, he scarcely moved, and many times Winry brought her ear to his chest, if only to ascertain that the former alchemist was still alive. The doctor, however, found not a single thing wrong with him, and it was stated that Edward should rest for a while. Edward obliged, and remained in his bed for the remaining weeks.<p>

He spent most of his time in a state of semi-consciousness, during which he whispered a variety of names familiar to Chruse through his stories of alchemists, and moaned. When he was awake, his eyes were always half open, and his voice was weak, each syllable only a whisper. He complained of a piercing headache, and he steadily grew worse. His eyesight failed to the point he could see nothing more than colorless blurs, and he could scarcely move.

Edward's condition took a drastic turn, and the doctor was again called.

"It…feels like…my body…is tearing up…from the inside…," he whispered to the man.

Again, the distressed doctor found nothing wrong with the golden-eyed man, whom was uncertainly charged with more rest. Edward, however, realized what was plaguing him. Winry settled onto the bed, after the doctor had left, and, with great difficulty, Edward managed to wrap her arms around her, and she buried her head in his chest. She struggled not to break out into tears, for fear their daughter might hear.

"Winry…," he whispered.

"No," she said, her voice muffled by his skin. "Please, don't speak; save your energy."

"I…have to…tell you this…," his words were like feathers, light and weak enough to be carried away by the minutest sounds.

In the same light words and frequent pauses that stretched out over eternity, Edward explained to his wife that, many years ago, in order to prevent him from dying almost immediately, he used his own life as sacrifice. But, he lamented, he had greatly underestimated the gravity of the wound, and now equivalent exchange had come back after over twenty years of dormancy.

Winry cried into his chest, and Edward allowed tears to spill freely from his eyes and stain her blonde hair. Edward had once before allowed equivalent exchange to get the better of him. Before, he had destroyed it and freed his brother from its grasp—but now it had returned. The former alchemist was allowing a tragedy to repeat itself, though this time, there was no chance he could overcome equivalent exchange.

It was then that Chruse entered the room through the closed door, which she opened with one of her tiny hands. Her mother, easily—so easily—slid herself out of Edward's weak, near useless arms. Her legs could not support her, and she immediately fell to her knees after a sad effort to stand.

Chruse saw the tears in Winry's eyes, and began to cry herself. She ran into her mother's arms, and Winry cradled her and held her so close the beat of her heart was the loudest thing she heard.

"What's going on, Mom?" she asked through her unexplained tears.

The blond mother squeezed her daughter tighter, but Chruse miraculously found her way out of Winry's frightened embrace and climbed onto the bed. Edward was only able to tell she was there by the shift of weight. She wrapped her small arms around his thinning shoulders.

Edward was as pale as death; his eyes were clouded and scarcely moved. His skin appeared too heavy for his frail bones to support, as it hung around his bones and beneath his eyes. His hair had begun to gray not only at his temples, as it did for most men his age, but about his entire scalp—and it had only suffered the change in pigment two or three weeks ago. His bones dug into Chruse's skin, and, had she not been crying so fervently, she would have been screaming in pain.

Not a word was spoken between the three Elrics, while they instead wallowed in their tears. When Chruse found she could cry no longer, she looked into her father's near useless eyes and asked, "What's going on..." her voice trailed off, as though it was overcome by a force she was oblivious to.

"I'm sorry, Chruse," he began, he whispered in a single breath. It took him a fair amount of traumatizing seconds to regain his breath. "But…I'm dying."

"How?" she moaned. "You can't die…you need to stay with me and Mom."

"I know…but…I…can't c-control…this…." He appeared ready to say more, but he instead broke out into an uncontrollable fit of violent coughing. Instinctively, Chruse closed her eyes, and, before her mother picked her up and carried her out of the room, she felt little droplets of some liquid fly onto her face.

The young alchemist was quiet as Winry brought her onto the porch outside. She sat her daughter in one of the chairs and retreated before a word could be exchanged between the two. She returned a minute later with a pure white rag in one hand. She kneeled before her daughter and wiped her face of Edward's blood. The engineer sat in the chair next to Chruse's, took her daughter's hand and gripped the bloody rag like it was her only life line.

She spoke but once during the next few hours, as mother and daughter watched the sun set and the moon claim its place in the sky.

"I'm sorry, honey."

* * *

><p>"I'll be there soon," Kae's voice said through the phone. The young woman was struggling to hide her sorrow from her young sister. "And so will Van and Uncle Al and Aunt May. Just hold on till tomorrow, then I'll be there with you."<p>

"I wanna give Daddy something special before he goes away," Chruse responded. "Something that will make him really happy."

Kae bit her lip. Tears began to pool in her eyes and stream down her cheeks and her shoulders began to shake. Garfiel, whom had just finished caring for a customer, put a burly hand on her shoulder and muttered, "Oh, dear…."

"What are you going to give him?" she abandoned her efforts to appear calm, but miraculously managed to keep herself from exploding with emotion.

Her sister's response, however, forced Kae to shatter.

"I'm gonna give him his alchemy back."

Kae choked, and a low moan slithered through her teeth. Chruse, upon hearing her sister's untamed distress, began to cry as well.

"Chruse," the golden-haired woman cried. "You cannot give him his alchemy back, okay? It's not possible, it's lost forever."

"No, it's not!" Chruse screamed into the phone. "I'm gonna find it and give it back to Dad!"

Their conversation ended with Chruse slamming down the phone. Kae screamed her sister's name into the phone and stopped only when Garfiel pressed the phone onto its cradle. Kae slammed her long, grease-stained fingers onto the table while Garfiel patted her head and offered her bits of comfort.

Winry found Chruse curled in a dark corner of the house, her face to her knees. She settled onto the floor and sat opposite her daughter, whom looked up at her and was reminded of a moment three years earlier.

* * *

><p>"...And then, you just draw a line from here to here," a fifteen-year-old Kae explained to Chruse as she ran her pen across the paper, from one point on a large circle to another. "Do you get it?"<p>

She nodded. "Yes."

Edward, whom was seated on the opposite side of the kitchen table, felt as though Winry was vying to yank all his hair out. He had dug his fingernails into the wood of the table and his eyes were wide. "Dammit! Are you trying to make my scalp bleed?"

"If you would stop moving, it wouldn't hurt as much!" shouted Winry as she gave his golden hair another dangerous pull.

"Ow!" he screamed. "Why do you even want to braid my hair?"

"Because if I don't braid it, you'll just have it down which makes it fly all over the place and get into the food!"

"You keep your hair in a ponytail," he retorted sourly.

"Yes, but my hair is not this long!"

Kae laughed dryly. "Why don't you just cut your hair, Dad?"

"Is it so wrong for a man to have long hair?" he yelled. "Why does it matter, my dad had long hair and so do I, okay?"

"His hair was nowhere near this long, Edward!"

Ed's argument with his wife ended with his defeat, as Winry obviously had the upper hand; pulling violently on her husband's hair each time he tried to argue. Which made it less of an argument and more of a, "Speak, and I make your scalp bleed." The former Fullmetal Alchemist did not have a chance.

"Stay here," said Kae as she rose. She wiggled a finger at her sister. "I'll be back in a bit, okay?"

Kae turned around and made her way into the kitchen as Chruse again averted her attention to her defeated father and grinning mother. Winry came to the final braid and completed it with a band. She leaned over and kissed the top of Edward's head. "Oh come on, Ed. You know I love your hair when it's braided…and it couldn't have hurt that much."

"Well, it hurt like hell!"

"Oh, would you rather I tore apart your automail and reconnected your nerves again and again?"

"Of course not!" He yowled.

Winry laughed and sat in the chair beside him. She turned to face Chruse, who had a large smile plastered on her face. "What are you smiling about?" she asked mockingly.

"Nothing…," she mumbled shyly, her rosy cheeks growing redder.

"What are you and Kae going to make using alchemy?" asked Winry.

At this question, Edward lifted his head from the table and golden eye met golden eye for a split second before he turned his attention to the transmutation circle on the small slip of paper before his daughter.

"You're making something from earth, huh?" he muttered, almost to himself.

"Yeah!" responded Chruse. "We're gonna make a little statue of a tree out of clay."

"That's great, honey!" said Winry. Edward, on the other hand, said nothing, which lead Winry to elbow him in the shoulder. He winced, but mostly ignored his wife. Instead, he pointed towards the paper and pen. "May I see that?"

Chruse nodded, collected the two indicated items and handed them to her father. He spread the paper before him, examined the symbols for a few seconds before he took the pen and drew several more lines and circles and other shapes. He was still busy with his work when Kae returned, holding a mound of clay in her cupped hands.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked her father. "You're gonna mess up the circle!"

"No I won't," he responded, keeping his eyes focused on the circle. "I'm fixing this circle."

"You don't need to fix it; I copied it straight from the book."

He looked up and met his daughter's gaze angrily. "What book?"

"Uh, _The Basics of Transmutation: A Beginner's Guide to Alchemy_," she said, shocked by her father's sudden change of tone.

"By Lina Grudge?"

"Yeah."

Edward shook his head. "Of course, that woman doesn't know a thing about alchemy."

"But it was in the book! It has to be right." She regretted saying those words almost immediately.

"I've been studying alchemy since before I was Chruse's age, and this transmutation circle was wrong. So, I corrected the mistakes and added a bit more to make it even more successful."

Chruse leaned over on the table to catch a glimpse at the circle. She pointed at several intersecting diamonds on the inside of the circle. "Isn't that what Uncle Alphonse made?"

The former alchemist grinned. "Yeah, you see, the diamonds help the energy move faster and easier through the source and into the object your transmuting—I've heard it makes a surprising difference, and is good not only for beginning alchemists, but for experienced ones as well." He looked down at the paper, and his voice acquired a sad lining. "I only wish I could have used it myself…."

Winry placed a hand on his back, and the two looked up at each other and smiled in a way that said, "There's nothing we can do but smile." But, Kae was too frustrated to notice and Chruse too young and inexperienced.

Ed turned back to his youngest daughter. "You know what my very first transmutation was?"

The girl's eyes widened. "What?" An itch spread through her body, one that she knew would not cease until her father told her this new story.

"Your uncle Al and I made a doll for your mother on her birthday."

"Really?" replied Chruse ecstatically.

"Oh, Ed," Winry said with a smile. "That was so long ago, how do you remember that?"

"I remember it because it was my first transmutation, of course! And because you cried afterwards." He said his next words in a soft, low voice so only his wife could hear. "It was also the happiest I had seen my mom in several years."

Winry placed a hand on his shoulder, and, for a split second, she did so to comfort the former alchemist, with a tender expression clouding her blue eyes. The clouds lifted, showing a cheerfulness as bright as the sun, and she squeezed his shoulder affectionately. "The only reason I cried is because I was absolutely terrified. I was convinced you and Al were trying to summon a monster or something!"

"Tell me more!" Chruse interjected.

Ed smiled as he looked at his daughter whose eyes reflected the same passion he knew once shown in his own golden eyes. "Your mother cried her eyes out! And your great-grandmother Pinako was so angry Al and I were convinced she would kill us! I don't even know what happened to that doll…" he turned to the blonde woman beside him and gave a haughty grin. "You were so terrified of it."

She slapped his shoulder, a vein in her forehead beginning to pulse. "Shut up, you know I had every right to be angry." Winry leaned back in her chair. She brought a hand to her chin and her eyes looked to the ceiling. "But, you know, I really don't have a clue as to what happened to that doll…. I guess I played with it a bit, but I know I lost it by the time you and Al." Her statement did not trail off, and instead ended at that odd place like it was the correct place to do so.

If an odd silence were to occur then, the two (for Kae had angrily wandered off to fetch the book her father disapproved of so strongly) would never had known, for Chruse, again, broke through it with a voice that had suddenly taken on a sad tone.

"So…you lost it?"

Winry leaned forward, placing all four legs Ed's chair down with her weight. "Yes, but you don't need to be upset, Chruse. Some things just aren't supposed to stay forever."

"Yeah," whispered the former Fullmetal Alchemist.

* * *

><p>Just as she had promised, Kae Elric arrived in Risembool the day after her conversation with Chruse. Her train arrived in the farming city at ten in the morning, and her long walk to the Elric home on the familiar dirt road was not traveled alone. She was accompanied by her brother Van and his wife. He was as pale as death. On the verge of tears, he hugged his dear sister when they spotted each other on the road as though he might never obtain the opportunity to do so again.<p>

"I can't believe this is happening…," he whispered into her.

"I know," she muttered back. "I never thought it would."

"I-I didn't even consider the fact that he might not be-" he took a deep breath. "Be around to see his first grandchild."

Shocked, Kae looked above her brother and eyed her sister-in-law, who held up two fingers. _Two months…Dad didn't even come close._

The two's embrace seemed to last all eternity, but, when it finally drew to a close—as all things do—she hooked one arm through his and the three Elrics made their way to a miserable place where they once thought they would see only smiles and hear only laughter.

Chruse spoke very little during the next three days. As guest after guest arrived, all from a close relative she dearly admired to a friend of her father's whom she knew only through the magnificent tales her father has spun for her, she said not a thing, at remained stoic and void of all emotion. Majority of her days were spent out of sight from the mourning guests. None had a clue as of what she was doing, for, when they did see her wandering about the main floor of the house where the guests were gathered—sleeping on couches, chairs pushed together, tables, carpets—all she did was search through cabinets and drawers. Oftentimes, she examined the same drawer several times in a row, as though expecting something different to appear. Anything she had not noticed before. Save for that, she was seen only when the door was knocked upon, and a new mourner entered the house. She would stand at the base of the stairs, and gaze into them long after they had noticed her presence. She would stay only until they introduced themselves—she was waiting for someone to come. But, all whom had yet to arrive were those barely mentioned in Edward's yarns and she had never been introduced to.

* * *

><p>Finally, on Tuesday, August 24th, when all but three of the guests had arrived, Edward Elric, the former Fullmetal Alchemist, passed away.<p>

In the two hours prior to his death, each Elric, alchemist, friend, Emperor, Ishballan—all were gathered about Edward's deathbed, packed so tightly into the room each felt the hot breath of another on the back of their neck.

Transmutation roots scarring his entire body, hair completely gray, eyes so clouded one would find the task of finding his gold irises impossible, limbs were skin-covered twigs, blue-ish veins more prominent on his face than his white lips and milky eyes—there was not much left of the former Fullmetal Alchemist.

He was propped up by many pillows, only so the guests could all see him clearly, for he saw only blackness. Their cries and sniffles, although so loud and reoccurring, went by almost unnoticed to the near-deaf former alchemist.

Alphonse, who was kneeling at the bedside, his hands wrapped gently around his brother's own, had grown tanner from Xing's warmer weather. His golden hair was cut just above his shoulders, and was graying slightly at his temples and hairline. His large golden eyes were swollen with sadness. His wife, Mei, kneeling beside him, cried outright into a white handkerchief. Behind the two stood their son, his lengthy black bangs hiding his eyes of the same color. He alone knew of his tears.

The former Führer, Roy Mustang, who broke apart said role shortly after he obtained it, reestablished the Parliament, and regained a long-missed and almost forgotten-about five-hundred-twenty cens, stood just beside his dear Riza. The couple had departed from their home in Central immediately after they had received a phone call from a teary-eyed Winry, and arrived two hours after the former alchemist's oldest children and expecting daughter-in-law. Behind the two was Alexander Louis Armstrong, tearful as ever, but lacking his sparkling aura.

"Don't let Chruse do human transmutation, okay?" Edward whispered to whomever was close enough to hear, which happened to be his wife, brother and sister-in-law. "I don't think she would, but don't let her…."

"Don't worry, brother," Alphonse responded loud enough for the entire sniffling room and dying man to hear. "You don't have to worry about a thing, alright?"

"Thanks…Alphonse. Hey, is my nephew here, the little Roy look-a-like?"

Al couldn't help but smile. "Kosuke looks like Mei, brother, how many times are you going to say that?"

"I'll...never…let it go."

The quiet child chuckled softly, brushing a lock of black hair from his eyes. "I know you won't, Uncle Ed."

"Dammit, Al…he's a genius."

"I know," Al squeezed his brother's hand tighter. "He's got Alkahestry down better than I do, and his alchemy's not bad either. You should have seen him last week, brother, he transmuted a dead tree into a little house for our cats…You know, we've got seven of them now."

"You…haven't…chan-nged…a bit," murmured Ed. "Not a bit…you're…still…my…little brother." At that moment, he broke into a brief fit of coughing, which wracked his entire body. "But," he whispered when he regained his voice. "I won't…be able…to protect you anymore."

Al's eyes watered further, and his voice began choked by his rising tears. "You don't need to protect _me_ anymore, brother. But you need to protect Winry, and Van, and Kae, and Chruse…we still need you, Ed." He took a deep breath. "I still need you."

Winry, crouching on the side of the bed opposite Alphonse, tightened her own grip on her husband's hand. _Maybe if I hold him tight enough_, she thought, _maybe if I never let him go, he'll never be able to leave. And maybe he'll take some of my energy and grow strong again…and he won't have to die like this. He won't die before Van and Daphne's child is born, and he'll be a grandfather. Chruse will grow up and Ed will be able to travel the rest of the world—study more and more alchemy and create wonderful transmutation circles like Al. Maybe then he'll be happy._

_ He'll be happy with me._

A small, innocent voice entered the room. It danced about the mourners, striving to avoid them. The words were made only for the former Fullmetal Alchemist.

"Daddy?"

Chruse creeped into the room, all her weight on the tips of her toes. The forged her own path through the people, and did not look above her once, even as she passed terrifying scarred men and crying family friends she absolutely adored. She was intent on reaching her father.

She successfully made her way to Winry's side, and all the mourners were able to get a good look at her. She seemed almost as ill as her father. Bluish bags hung under her golden, blood-shot eyes. Pale as death, she took a deep breath and spoke.

"Daddy, Daddy."

Edward did make a sound, but he made a response by aiming his blank eyes at her.

"Daddy, Daddy, I found something," she said. "I found something wonderful, Daddy."

Kae, standing beside her brother, immediately collapsed to her knees. She was overcome by tears, shaking violently with her every breath. She covered her mouth with a bloodless hand, and allowed countless tears to slide down her puffy cheeks. "Chruse…Chruse," she whispered under her breath, far too soft for the ears of anyone save herself.

Winry, however, echoed her words to the young girl. Chruse heard not a word though, but tightened her grip on the precious object hidden behind her back. "I got you something you're gonna love, Dad. I got you something you've really missed. You'll be so happy, Dad."

"Chruse, please…," Winry's useless voice.

"You can't do anything," Kae's whispering. "Nothing can be done. It's out of our control."

Although the room was so far from silent to any outsider, it was the quietest moment the mourners had ever lived through, and would ever live through. They watched, in their own brand of silence, as Chruse revealed a small, worn doll.

"Do you remember this, Daddy? This is the doll you and Uncle Al made for Mom. Your first bit of alchemy, Dad." She sniffled, but continued, just as strong. "You can't do alchemy anymore. But…you always help me! You've told me so much, more than I ever could have learned anywhere else. But Daddy, I know you miss alchemy. You love it as much as I love it. And you watch me perform it, and you help me, even though you've lost it.

"You...you are wonderful. You are the best alchemist I've ever met. You know so much, and even though you can't do it anymore you didn't forget about it. You're so strong, Dad." She stretched out her tiny arms and rested the doll on his thin chest. "I've found something else you've lost, though, Daddy. I found that doll. So, if I can find something that you've never seen for even longer, then maybe you can find your alchemy. But you'll find it, Daddy." Her eyes overflowed with tears. "I know you're strong enough."

A voice emerged from the crowd. "Of course he's strong enough, he's Fullmetal."

Roy Mustang.

"Strong enough to defeat a man almost akin to God."

Alexander Louis Armstrong.

"Strong enough to trust a murder""…strong enough to become a State Alchemist at age twelve""…strong enough to perform human transmutation" "…strong enough to give up his own alchemy, just to save me, even after giving his arm."

The scarred man, Riza, an orange-haired man Chruse couldn't identify as he puffed on a cigarette, and Uncle Alphonse.

"You didn't have to save me," stuttered Alphonse, "you know that. You gave up your arm for me, and then your alchemy. You love alchemy, brother! And you gave it away just so you could get me back. There are not very many people who can do that, brother…. You've done so much, and you've proven yourself to the strongest man in all of Amestris many times over."

"Being a state alchemist is something most consider to be greedy. We're scorned for using our alchemy to hurt people," Roy paused, as though searching for words. "A lot of people who pass the state exam don't grasp that concept, and they end up running as soon as they are given one sour look. You had the strength to endure that as well."

Silence had now fallen about the room, and everyone watched as the Fullmetal Alchemist allowed several tears to well inside of his eyes. Chruse reached her hand to touch his arm, and stretched out her other hand to rest the doll on his frail chest.

It was so fitting to have him pass in such a position. Surrounded by those who he had touched during his life, and by those who touched him. As tears slipped from his eyes and slid down his cheeks, a small smile grew on his lips. The hands of his wife, brother, sister-in-law, and youngest daughter touched his skin softly. And the Fullmetal Alchemist smiled, and surrendered, knowing that he had still won.

* * *

><p>Iceclaw14: Yeah…I hope you guys liked that. It got really difficult to write sometimes…originally, the Elric kids had really ugly names, and then I changed them all to names of characters who had died in Brotherhood, (Van, Maes, (I made Kae a dude in that version), and Nina), mostly because I wanted the son to be Van. But then I decided that would be stupid, and the names are now the same as you have just read. Um, I gave Kosuke a Japanese name because I wanted to, and I really liked the sound of the name…sorry, I don't have a better excuse. It's just like Izumi. The three people that didn't show up were Sig, Olivier, and Roy and Riza's daughter. Yes…I love Royai too. And I made sure to have Roy give up the role of Führer and keep his promise to Ed, which he made in the episode, "The 520-Cens Promise." I really liked that part… Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this, and please R&amp;R and CC and whatever else you wanna do…<p> 


End file.
